DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 3-PHASE POLLS IN J&K START NEXT MONTH, COUNTING ON OCTOBER 4 KOLKATA RAPE-MURDER Hospital ex-principal questioned by CBI SWEETY KUMARI KOLKATA, AUGUST 16 SANDEEP GHOSH, the former principal of R G Kar medical college and hospital, where a junior doctor was raped and murdered on August 9,was onFridayquestioned by the CBI for more than six hours. The CBI had taken over the investigation after questions were raised over the Kolkata police’shandlingof thecase.Ghosh appeared for questioning at the CBI office at Kolkata’s CGO complex in the afternoon. According to sources, Ghosh had expressed concerns about his safety, because of which CBI officials took him to their office in an agency vehicle. The agency had earlier questioned two members of the Kolkata Police SIT that initially probed the case, as well as four CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK Haryana will also vote for new House on October 1, says EC, no other poll until J&K gets over Dhaka says its chief advisor will join Delhi-hosted virtual summit today EXPRESS INDHAKA DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, AUGUST 16 TEN YEARS since the last Assembly elections and the first for the Union Territory that was created in 2019, Jammu and Kashmir is headed for a threephased election in September and October, with the Election Commission announcing the schedule on Friday. Polling will be held in J&K on September 18, September 25 and October 1, and votes will be counted on October 4. The EC also announced the schedule for the Haryana Assembly elections — polling on October 1 and counting on October 4. On Friday, The Indian Express reported that J&K and Haryana would go to polls together. After announcing the poll schedule, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told TheIndianExpress:“Thiselection schedule is the shortest for Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections in a few decades. We would assure all the required securitytocandidatesandfacilities to electors. The best answer to the bullet is through the ballot, as was shown in the Lok Sabha elections.Weareexpectingelectors and parties to participate with even greater enthusiasm.” Both Houses have 90 seats each, with 87.09 lakh electors in J&K and 2.01 crore in Haryana as per the draft electoral rolls. The first phase in J&K will cover 24 Assembly constituencies of the Anantnag, Kishtwar, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SHUBHAJIT ROY DHAKA, AUGUST 16 CEC Rajiv Kumar (centre) announces the schedule for Assembly polls in J&K and Haryana in New Delhi, Friday. Praveen Khanna BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY SRINAGAR, AUGUST 16 RELATED REPORTS PAGE 12 Nomination period Polling J&K (Phase 1) AFTER LAUNCH SUCCESS, ISRO SAYS SSLV DEVELOPMENT IS COMPLETE Seats Reshuffle in J&K before poll dates; DGP Swain loses charge of CID BASHAARAT MASOOD & NAVEED IQBAL SCHEDULE FOR ASSEMBLY POLLS State Yunus dials Modi, assures security, safety of Hindus, other minorities 24 Aug 20 - Aug 27 Sep 18 J&K (Phase 2) 26 Aug 29 -Sep 5 Sep 25 J&K (Phase 3) 40 Sep 5 - Sep 12 Oct 1 Haryana 90 Sep 5 - Sep 12 Oct 1 RESULTS: OCTOBER 4 PAGE 12 HOURS BEFORE the Election Commission announced the dates for Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, the Union Territory ordered a major reshuffle in police and civil administration. The move was heavily criticisedbytheNationalConference, which alleged that it was “intended to undermine the integrity of the electoral process”. The J&K administration said in an order Friday that DGP R R Swain was removed as J&K’s intelligencechief —theheadof the CID — and replaced by ADGP Nitish Kumar. This comes a day after the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday announced that 1992-batch IPS officer Nalin IN THE first high-level contact betweenthetwocountriessince the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and concerns in India over attacks on minorities, especiallyHindus,inBangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, head of the interim government in Dhaka, called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday. He assured him that the interim government would “prioritise protection, safety and security of Hindus and all minority groups in Bangladesh”. This is significant given that eversinceAugust5whenHasina fled to India and violence swept Bangladesh,Modihasexpressed concern twice in public about the situation of Hindus and the other minorities there — on August 8 while greeting Yunus CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PM Narendra Modi; (right) Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor to interim govt E E X P L A I NE D West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee takes part in a protest rally against the rape-murder in Kolkata, Friday. PTI After 10 yrs, J&K to elect an Assembly, CEC says ballot is best answer to bullet FIRST HIGH-LEVEL CONTACT ● The road ahead THIS FIRST conversation since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, who has been in India ever since August 5, reflects the pragmatism in the two capitals to paper over the differences over Indian support for Hasina’s long rule, and move ahead on the bilateral front by mending fences. The invitation to Yunus for the virtual Voice of Global South Summit is a step in that direction. In $1-billion exports to Bangladesh, Adani power unit contributed most Govt now amends rules to allow the Adani Group plant to also sell in India HARIKISHAN SHARMA Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Friday evening. Shuaib Masoodi PrabhatwouldsucceedSwainas J&K DGP on October 1. ADGP Kumar, a 1999-batch IPS officer, was originally from the J&K cadre — now part of the AGMUT cadre. He has served in the Valley for several years as SP andSSPatHandwara,andasDIG of south and north Kashmir. Duringadeputationwiththe NIA, Kumar worked as IG (Investigations) in the central agency. On his return, he was postedasIGCIDandlaterasADG CID.Kumaralsoholdsthecharge CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, AUGUST 16 THE ONLY power plant in India contracted to export its entire output to Bangladesh, but now allowed to sell in India, accounts for a bulk of $ 1 billion of power exports in 2023-24. Withelectricityexportssurging, power accounted for 9.3 per cent or over $1 billion of India’s total exports ($11 billion) to Bangladesh in 2023-24, up from a little over 3 per cent two years ago ($498 million). Following uncertainty in Bangladesh after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled Dhaka to India,anewinterimgovernment is in place. But New Delhi recently amended its power export rules to derisk the only plant, belonging to the Adani Group, in India that is currently contracted to export its entire outputfromits1,600MW(mega watt) plant in Jharkhand to Bangladesh. As per records available with CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Gujarat govt wants pre-monsoon action Wanted podium in Paris ‘India needs 60-148 mn jobs over 6 against sand flies, key carriers of CHPV to showcase our Flag, yrs, focus on few areas won’t help’ ADITI RAJA VADODARA, AUGUST 16 WITH EXPERTS expressing concern about the "emerging" Chandipura Acute Viral Encephalitis (CHPV) becoming more widespread in the years to come, the Gujarat government has advised health departments across districts and civic bodies to make preventive action against sand flies — the primary transmitters of the virus —aregular part of pre-monsoon health activities to curb its spread. Health experts camping in Gujarat to study CHPV, which has so far affected 26 of 33 districts in Gujarat and led to the deaths of 27 children, have maintained that the virus will PAGE 1 ANCHOR 27 CHPVdeaths inGujarat Underoneyear 1to5years 6to10years 11to16years 2 12 9 4 59 CHPVcasesin GujarattillAugust6 Underoneyear 5 1to5years 3 6to10years 14 11to16years 7 Source: Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in Lok Sabha "continue to exist and spread", as it is an “emerging virus”. Experts from a central team that visited Gujarat to study the spread of CHPV, meanwhile, have found anti-CHPV antibodiesinseveralsamplesof humans, cattles and rodents collected from the affected districts. Health officials told The Indian Express that though the 164 cases of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) reported so far this year in Gujarat included 61 CHPV cases, the cases have not been reported in a cluster. Dataanalysedbythegovernmentsince2009–apresentation on which has been distributed amongalldistrictandcivichealth departments – shows that Gujarat had reported 22 CHPV cases as against 51 AES cases in 2009. It also saw a 100 per cent CONTINUEDONPAGE2 our protests: Vinesh EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, AUGUST 16 TWO DAYS after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) verdict ended Vinesh Phogat’s hopesof gettingasilvermedalat the Paris Games, the wrestler, in an emotional social media post Friday, spoke about her attachmenttothenationalflagand her regretof missingoutonbeingon theOlympics podium while carrying it. Recalling last year’s protest againstformerchief of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and a photo frame of her lying on the Vinesh Phogat returns home from Paris Saturday street near Jantar Mantar next to the Tricolour, she said, “During thewrestlers’protestIwasfighting hard to protect the sanctity of women in India, the sanctity and values of our Indianflag. But when I look at the pictures of me CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UDIT MISRA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 16 THEECONOMICSurvey2023-24 estimated India needs to create close to 8 million new jobs each yearinthecomingdecade.Inher interview with The Indian Express, Gita Gopinath, IMF’s First Deputy Managing Director, saysthecountry needs tocumulatively create anywhere between 60 million and 148 million additional jobs between now and 2030. What are the main worries or challenges that you see before the global economy? So firstly, if you look at global growth, we see it as quite stable THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW GITA GOPINATH IMF’S FIRST DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR — at 3.2% this year and 3.3% for next year. In terms of the challenges to it, the concerns are, firstly, on the front of inflation. It’s been coming down for most countries in the world, and we expect that to continue, but the jobisnotcompletelydoneatthis point. So we just need to make sure that that happens without there being any big effect on terms of economic activity. The second is what’s coming from geopolitics and conflicts aroundtheworldthathasimplications for commodity prices. And there’s a risk that if there is further increase in tensions in the Middle East that could have that could raise oil prices, for example. So that’s another area that has implications for the world. We’re also in a year of political uncertainty, because this is a year where we’re having a large number of elections around the world. That brings with it uncertainty on specific policies, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Painters, masons by day, how theatre actors came up with a winner ALAKA SAHANI & ANANDU SURESH MUMBAI, KOCHI, AUGUST 16 THE IDEA of a feature film that gives 11 theatre actors “equal” space struck Anand Ekarshi in the shower. Immediately, the writer-director says, he sent a voice message to actor Vinay Fortt explaining the concept. Thus began the journey of Aattam (The Play) — a movie which unfolds within a closeknitKeralatheatregroupandexposes sexism, hypocrisy and opportunistic behaviour among the characters. The Malayalamlanguage movie — designed as a chamber drama — is a scathing taleof howmembersof atheatre group react when the only woman in the group makes a sexual harassment allegation against a popular movie star who is new to the team. On Friday, the National Awards jury announced Aattam asthe winner inthree majorcategories — Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay and Best Editing. While Ekarshi has directed and written the screenplay, Mahesh Bhuvanend is the film’s editor. Both Fortt and Ekarshi have been associated with KochibasedtheatregroupLokadharmi Nadakaveedu for several years. “It was Vinay who suggested that we do something that all these wonderful theatre actors can be part of. He kept nudging me to write a script. The basic ideabehindthefilmisthis:‘Isjusticeapursuitof anindividualora group’. I also wanted to explore how justice works when personalstakescomein.Afterthat,I thought of the setting and characters,” Ekarshi told The Indian Express in an earlier interview. Eleven of the 13 key actors in Aattam — excluding Kalabhavan Anand Ekarshi (above), the director of Aattam, which won national awards in 3 categories Shajohn and Zarin Shihab — have been associated with Lokadharmi. Fortt, who has studied acting at Film and TelevisionInstituteof India(FTII), Pune, too plays a major character in the film. Shihab, who did workshops with the actors for 35-40 days before the shoot, plays the role of Anjali. In the movie, Anjali faces harassment at a hotel where the theatre group is partying and when she talks about that, the group, instead of confrontingtheaccused,trytoreach aconsensus,thuslayingbarethe underlyingsuspicions,greedand pettiness among themselves. “Alotof peopleareaskingme if we expected this,” Shihab told The Indian Express. “We’ve learnedtokeepourexpectations low—youneverknow,right?But seeing all the recognition we received at film festivals, including the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image (MAMI) and the InternationalFilmFestivalofIndia (IFFI), did give us a little hope.” Most of these actors — who have been part of Lokdharmi’s productions,especiallyitslongestrunningplay,Karnabharam—are fromhumblebackgroundswitha passion for acting. Jolly Antony is a tile layer; Aji Thiruvamkulam is a painter; Selvaraj Raghavan VR used to be a headload worker; SudheerBabuisatheatreteacher; Santhosh Piravom owns a vegetable shop and drives an autorickshaw; Sijin Sijeesh runs a motor-winding workshop; SanoshMuraliworksasapercussionist; Prasanth Madhavan is a tour operator; and Madhan Babu K is a senior government employee at Agriculture University. The film’s idea was first floated during the second round of the Covid-induced lockdown. As Ekarshi developed the idea, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad